Tata Motors has a very clever naming mantra. The company launches a next generation version of a particular vehicle and keeps the old version as well. But how do they manage to sell two generation of vehicles side by side. Well, initially they launched the Indica Vista and Indigo Manza but gradually faded away the Indica and Indigo name into oblivion, focusing on the Vista and Manza name. They plan to do the same with the Safari and Merlin (an updated version of the Safari). The latest being the renaming of the Sumo Grande to Grande.
Now the dropping of of the Sumo name from the Grande seems very logical. The first thought that the Sumo name gives the buyers is of taxi. Tata Motors is positioning the Grande to private vehicle buyers and in order to differentiate this, have dropped the Sumo name altogether from the vehicle. Now the Tata Grande (as it is called) will be a different model from the Sumo. The Sumo will continue to cater to the taxi market. Hopefully this strategy won’t be carried forward to Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles, as it could create utter confusion.
